Review of The Bingo Palace by Louise Erdrich, Part 1, Introduction

If you think of the USA, one of the first things that comes to your mind is Las Vegas, Reno or other cities where casinos attract the tourists. In these days, casinos are an important part in the life of many people. Some people are addicted, some just like playing, but the most have already played a game of chance or will play it some day.  But few know that casinos are illegal in the USA and that the game of chance is only allowed to be played on reservations and that is why all these “casino cities” are built in reservations.

“The Bingo Palace” by Louise Erdrich is an ethnic novel, which describes life on a Chippewa reservation and especially links to the game of chance, as the title already announces. The Bingo Palace reveals many aspects of reservation life and I will elaborate some of them further.

One of these aspects is the game of chance, the “Bingo Palace”. After this I will deal with the job situation. With us it is a big problem and so it is elsewhere. So it will be interesting to see how it is in the reservation.

Then I will go into detail about the situation of women in a tribe. The position of women in society has been an issue in Europe, too, until a few years ago. It is interesting to see how this point is handled in a reservation of Native Americans.

The next thing that interests me is marriage in a reservation. Marriage as it is shown between Zelda Kashpaw and Xavier Toose and also between Shawnee Ray Toose and Lyman Lamartine. What the woman has to do about it and what traditions the Chippewas have.

Religion and spirituality is another issue concerned in the novel I will deal with. There have always been interesting stories about spirituality and the religion of Native Americans. But how is it presented by the novel?

And then I will portray Lipsha searching for her identity.

I will not write a biography of the author, Louise Erdrich, because the only thing that seems important to me concerning this work is that she herself is part Chippewa.

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Review of The Bingo Palace by Louise Erdrich, Part 2, Summary

Review of The Bingo Palace by Louise Erdrich, Part 3, Job Situation

Review of The Bingo Palace by Louise Erdrich, Part 4, Situation of Women in The Tribe

Review of The Bingo Palace by Louise Erdrich, Part 5, Marriages